The Home Cook: Stepped Up Grilled Cheese / Pixelated F-Stop: Winter Scenery

It's been pretty wintry over the last couple of weeks. Not that I'm complaining, because I'm certainly glad that we didn't just by-pass they season as a whole. But when the weather is like this...

Our front shrub, the red branches are gorgeous in the winter.

The neighbor's pine tree.

The neighbor's crab apple tree.

There is only one food for my palette...

The humble grilled cheese, yes I know. It's hardly gourmet and quite frankly it's about as boring as the classic PB&J (which I also adore). However, when the temperatures drops and the trees turn a crispy white, a bit of cheese is all I need. I personally like my sandwiches with yellow and white american cheese. The blend of cheeses is an idea I unflinchingly stole from my collegiate Alma Mater and was one of the crown jewels of their food lines...hefty slices of Texas Toast brushed with clarified butter and stuffed with both styles of american cheese, lovingly (or not, depending on the lunch lady) grilled to browned nirvana on a flat grill. It was bliss on a plate, I kid you not. I liked to pair the sandwich with it's best mate, tomato soup...but you would have just as likely found a hefty scoop of cottage cheese dusted with pepper and garnished with croutons with it. These day's I make my sandwiches with wheat toast and usually stick to the soup (canned by you know who) but with soup or cottage cheese, the two tone grilled cheese is by far one of my favorite winter foods.

Two Tone Grilled Cheese

Butter

Sliced Bread (Texas Toast is best)

Yellow American Cheese

White American Cheese

Lay out bread, butter inside of each slice fill with 2-4 slices of cheese (2 for regular bread, 4 for Texas Toast.). Close. Butter bottom of sandwich place in a heated cast iron skillet, butter top. Grill until bottom is golden brown, flip. Grill until top is golden brown, remove sandwich to plate and cut along the bias. Eat.